The Official 2013-2014 Football Season Thread

[|iR|Focalor]

Saints just aren't contenders for the superbowl this year...no heart on the road, so ugly to watch

Yep. They got beat by a good defensive team today. Although I recorded it and slept through the whole game, the stats look like it was a game the Saints could have won. Coulda, woulda, shoulda. O-line and predictable play-calling will sink our hopes.  The only hope I have for the Saints is that they can slip into the playoffs and make a run. Tampa next week is no gimmee.   

In case you haven't watched it yet and plan on doing so later... SPOILER ALERT - READ NO FURTHER!

The 1st half onside kick was awesome. Just like the one from the beginning of the 2nd half in the Superbowl several years back, it was executed to flawless perfection. It started raining like a cow pissing on a flat rock in the 2nd half though, and passing got mostly removed from both offenses play calling until it let up. And I think coach Peyton knew he was gonna have to make some gambles to win that game, like the surprise onside kick trick for example, but he played it characteristically smart only made those gambles in the first half, which only paid off with field goals, but it was better than NOTHING. New Orleans had it won in the 4th, and Peyton went with the statisticians and conservative offense by running it rather than risking stopping the clock with incomplete passes. And it bit him in the ass. Carolina has a bit of talent coupled with a bit of luck this year. As for New Orleans, sometimes you can do everything right and still lose. Shit happens.

I think we all knew Carolina had a great quarterback to build a team around. So far I ain't seen them do a whole ton of shit to build a hugely formidable team, but guys in the program are finally stepping up, answering the call, and believing in themselves. That's what a reputably bad team HAS to do in order to pave the way for the front office to offer big money for big trades that will actually lure players IN rather than getting laughed at before the phone line goes CLICK!

[Sgt. Dick]

It is nice to see some important games for next week.
Philly versus Dallas in Dallas - The way Philly has been playing, I think Philly will win this game.
Green Bay versus Chicago in Chicago - If Aaron Rogers plays I give the nod to GB
SF versus Arizona in Arizona - I have a hard time picking against SF
Miami versus Jets in Miami - If Miami wins their in, I hope they can pull it off plus I love to see the Jets lose.

Some key injury reports came out today.
Romo from Dallas is done for the season.
Von Miller from Denver is done for the season.
Matthews from GB will most likely miss the next few games, which could be the season.

[Krlll Mule]

It is nice to see some important games for next week.
Philly versus Dallas in Dallas - The way Philly has been playing, I think Philly will win this game.
Green Bay versus Chicago in Chicago - If Aaron Rogers plays I give the nod to GB
SF versus Arizona in Arizona - I have a hard time picking against SF
Miami versus Jets in Miami - If Miami wins their in, I hope they can pull it off plus I love to see the Jets lose.

Some key injury reports came out today.
Romo from Dallas is done for the season.
Von Miller from Denver is done for the season.
Matthews from GB will most likely miss the next few games, which could be the season.

The Saints SS Viccaro out with broken ankle. That rookie has been solid all year...huge loss.  I find myself pulling for the Falcons?! and hoping the Saints don't tank.

[Sgt. Dick]

http://mynews13.com/content/news/cfnews13/sports/article.html/content/news/articles/ap/2013/12/26/Gamecocks_Clowney_pulled_over_again_for_speeding.html

South Carolina's Clowney now has 2 speeding tickets of 25 or more over the speed limit in 3 weeks.
If they follow through (Big If) he should have his license suspended because of the 12 points.
In the first ticket it listed him driving a Chrysler 300, I could see him driving a tricked out 300.

[Sgt. Dick]

NFL Pro Bowl Selections
http://espn.go.com/blog/nflnation/post/_/id/109680/2014-nfl-pro-bowl-selections

These teams had no players selected - Atlanta, Green Bay, Jacksonville, NY Giants, and NY Jets.

Jacksonville did not surprise me, but the other teams did.

[haunted]

My parlays are working out well. I did several involving wash over byu, ND over Rutgers, NC over Cincinnati, Miami over Louisville, and Michigan over state. I'll profit 360 if Miami and Michigan both win. 190 for Michigan, 170 for Miami. Hopefully one of them pulls it off.

[|iR|Focalor]

Miami got buttfucked with the business end of a shovel by Louisville. It was kinda surprising actually. I thought that was gonna be a closer game, but hell naw, it was ugly.

I was hoping Rutgers could pull one out against Notre Dame, but it didn't happen. I don't "hate" the Irish, I'm just still mad at them for being a less than title contention team last year and giving such a lousy showing against Alabama. It's the NATIONAL TITLE GAME, for christs sake. I don't expect it to be a hotly contested quintuple overtime nailbiter each and every year, but I don't expect to see an all out gang rape either.

This years probably not gonna be much better. I personally think Auburn's gotten lucky as fuck in the last half of the season. And I suspect that FSU will do to them what Alabama SHOULD'VE done.

[Sgt. Dick]

I knew Louisville would beat Miami, maybe not quite as bad as they did, but would beat them easily.
Miami is not that good, Florida should have beat them and you saw how Florida did this year.

You are probably right about FSU/Auburn.  I am leery about Auburn, because they have been so lucky this year.  The light might shine on Auburn one more time and they might get the upset.

[|iR|Focalor]

Can't say that I'm mad at all that Alabama lost tonight. On Wednesday, I literally flipped a coin to make bets on a couple of bowl games and came up a winner on both of them. I didn't wager shit on the Georgia-Nebraska game. I figured my Dawgs would lose, but couldn't bring myself to actually bet against them. I did bet on the Rose Bowl though. I had no idea who to pick, so I just flipped a coin and let fate decide it. Came up tails for Michigan State, and that's who won, so hooray for me. I flipped a coin for the Fiesta Bowl too. I figured UCF might upset Baylor, and was probably gonna go that way anyway. UCF's only loss was to a South Carolina team who was playing at their best, and it was still a very close game. Odds were particularly in favor of Baylor, but I knew better, and apparently my new lucky quarter did too. And it paid off pretty good.

Flipped the same quarter again for tonights game. It came up tails for Oklahoma. Odds were heavily in favor of Alabama, but I wasn't too concerned about losing anything after my other 2 wins, so I said fuck it. And whaddaya know, I win again. And holy shit, did Oklahoma give Alabama a fight. Had them trailing all night long. And that QB OU had came out of nowhere with a superb performance. He looked like a seasoned vet all night. Dunno if it's a fluke, but I'd look for more great things from them next year.

Dunno if I'm gonna wager shit on the Florida State-Auburn game. Fucking sucks that the Cotton Bowl is starting 1 hour before the Orange Bowl. Hate having to pick which one to watch. I'd like to see them both, but obviously the Orange Bowl is gonna be more interesting to see. Wanna see how Ohio State stands up against some decent competition for once this year.

[Sgt. Dick]

I did not watch the second half of the Ala/Okla game since I had to get up early today, but Oklahoma  played toe to toe with Alabama for the part I saw.  Oklahoma's defensive line was getting good pressure and caused the normally smart McCarron to make some bad throws.  I see that Alabama had 5 turnovers and Oklahoma turned those into 28 points.  Oklahoma sacked McCarron a bunch of times, they probably sacked him more in this game than he had been sacked all season.  Oklahoma's offense used the same formula that gave Alabama problems when they played Texas A&M and Auburn.  Alabama seems to have a hard time playing against teams that play up tempo, especially if they can do it with a good mixture of run and pass. 
Bottom line is you can't turn the ball over 5 times against good teams and expect to win.

[|iR|Focalor]

Orange Bowl was cool. But a few glaring mistakes in officiating towards the end. That last interception should've been reviewed. It might've possibly been overturned as an incomplete pass since the defender was kinda bobbling it on his way to the ground. And then right at the end when Clemson got flagged for having a player celebrating on the field without a helmet, Ohio State still had 2 timeouts in their pocket as it was 3rd down. Urban Meyer FUCKED UP. He could've taken a timeout after that last kneel down and maybe about 20 seconds and 1 timeout to pull off a miracle. I don't understand that logic at all. You got 2 timeouts in a fucking BOWL GAME! YOU USE THOSE FUCKERS! If you can have any time at all with the ball, you still have a chance to do something.

[|iR|Focalor]

Wow. That was actually a decent game. I thought about putting all my winnings thus far on Florida State to win. Then I had second thoughts when I saw the odds against Auburn and thought of what a nice payout that would be. But I ended up folding altogether and didn't bet at all. I was quite surprised by Auburn's tempo. Their coach has obviously done his homework. All that hustle-hustle up to the line like some of the lighter west coast teams typically do was working really well for them in the first half. They slowed it down just a tad in the 4th quarter though. That ending was pretty crazy. Particularly that kickoff return for a TD. I don't think I've EVER seen a football player run that fucking stupid-fast in my entire life. He caught the ball, I blinked twice, and he was already in the god damn end zone! I mean, holy shit! Then Auburn hands it off to Tre Mason and he steamrolls 3 defenders on his way to a TD with a little more than 70 seconds left on the clock. I'm thinking... this shit is over now. Hell no. FSU comes back and scores again.

The first 3 quarters of the game wasn't all that awesome, but the ending more than made up for it. Great game. And I guess Auburn kinda proved that they have more talent than most people gave them credit for.

So here comes another 7 or 8 months without college football. Dammit man. This season fucking blew by too fast.

And next year they start the college playoff shit. Dunno if I like it. Only the top 4 teams get a shot. I was hoping for a little wider pool than that. I've bitched about how senseless the BCS ranking system works, especially towards the end of the year when a late season loss can kill off a teams chances compared to a team with the same record that just so happened to have their only loss early in the season. And just when I stop bitching about it and start getting used to it, THEN they go and change it around. Oh well though. If it means college football carries on a little longer into January, that's pretty cool I guess. I just hope they keep all the tons of different bowl games. I always look forward to watching college football every damn day of the week around Christmas time. I'm getting older and I don't look forward to Christmas in and of itself as much as I did when I was younger, but all the great football sure helps to get me excited about that time of year.

[Sgt. Dick]

So here comes another 7 or 8 months without college football. Dammit man. This season fucking blew by too fast.

 

[adz1La]

ahh...this time again, LSU held it down in their bowl game (Jeremy Hill is a fucking monster anyway - and I *Think* is returning)..Saints likely to lose to the shehawks today..football season always seems to fly by..sad

[|iR|Focalor]

I think the Saints might put up more of a fight than you think. I'm wanting the Saints to win, even though I have nothing in particular against the Seattle Seahacks... other than the fact I'm pretty sure that the whole team is on a mandatory regiment of extra-strength PED's either personally prescribed or at least endorsed by Pete Carroll himself and the whole rest of the organization... and I think that still qualifies as "nothing in particular", right? Sure, why not. I'm not saying that PED's aren't rampant in the NFL, I mean come on, just LOOK at these guys. It's pretty obvious. You don't get that huge and cut just by lifting lots of heavy things and eating Wheaties. But I have a sneaking suspicion that the Seahawks are one particular organization that not only knows that their players are doing it, but are actually SUPPORTING their efforts to do it and are guilty of taking steps to protect against it being discovered.

My picks for the weekend:
1. Saints over Seahawks (see #3 for the reason)
2. Colts over Patriots (Tom Brady's gonna run out of miracles and the only Luck he's gonna see is gonna be the other team's QB)
3. Panthers over 49ers (1 through 3 are toss-ups in my opinion, but I'd sure like to see 2 teams from the NFC South duking it out in a Conference Championship for a Superbowl ticket )
4. Chargers over Broncos (I honestly think Denver's gonna clean San Diego's fuckin' clock in a major way, but I'm still holding out hope that this might be the year that San Diego FINALLY gets to take themselves off the Never Been To A Superbowl list. And seeing as how the Colts managed to overcome insurmountable odds and beat a fearsome Chiefs team... anything is possible.)